what we found out was that the biggest banks in the united states borrowed a heck of a lot more money than anybody had imagined. >> narrator: the details of the loans became public only after bloomberg news took the case all the way to the supreme court. >> so what we found out, really, was that wall street was in much, much deeper problems, they were in much deeper trouble, than we ever imagined. on the peak day in 2008, it was december 5, 2008, the banks had taken loans of $1.2 trillion. and that's one day. and out of that $1.2 trillion, not necessarily on the same day, morgan stanley alone took out $107 billion, had $107 billion in loans out in a single day. citigroup-- over $99 billion on a single day. bank of america-- $91 billion on a single day. royal bank of scotla, ubs, all the biggest banks in the world, had borrowed way more than we ever thought. >> narrator: the loans were part of an unprecedented intervention in the financial system. in all, the federal reserve made available more than $7.7 trilli in loans, commitments and guarantees to financial institutions around the w